Don't worry. "2 Days in Paris" isn't about some fool's blessedly brief affair
with an idiotic heiress. Rather, it's a breezy and appealing movie that takes
painfully honest, frequently funny stock of the crazily neurotic (but devoted)
relationship between French photographer Marion and American interior-designer
Jack as they wrap up a stressful European vacation with a brief stay at her parents'
home in Paris before returning to New York City. The beautiful actress Julie
Delpy does more than simply play leading lady Marion with easy charm and intelligence.
In protean fashion, Delpy wrote, directed, and co-edited "2 Days in Paris," and
composed the music for the film; it's an impressive feat made all the more remarkable
by the high quality of the production, which also stars Adam Goldberg in an amusingly
Woody Allen-esque performance as the high-strung Jack. Delpy devised "2 Days..." as
a romantic comedy done in cinema verité style, and it has its dark moments.
She's not afraid to let Marion and Jack really get on one another's nerves. After
all, their love is being tested by his hypochondria and insecurities, her family's
flippant attitude towards him, and her heedless flirtations with former paramours
who seem to pop up wherever Marion and Jack go. There are echoes of filmmaker
Richard Linklater's tender "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset," which featured
Delpy and Ethan Hawke as two travelers whose brief encounter on a European train
trip leads to romance. But "2 Days in Paris" shows us what might happen to even
the happiest of couples after the initial blush and rush wear off.